Typical electric pencil sharpeners include an electric motor, a speed reducing gear train, a multi-piece cutter assembly, a pencil size selector guide and/or a pencil alignment device, and a switch for activating the motor, e.g. upon insertion of a pencil. A removable receptacle may also be provided for collecting shavings with some pencil sharpeners. These sharpeners may include a receptacle presence switch for preventing operation of the motor unless the removable receptacle is fitted to the housing.
Many of the above components e.g, the motor, gear train and cutter assembly are mounted on various internal support structures within the housing to permit precise alignment thereof for proper operation and sharpening. The internal support structures are typically supported by a base structure. An external housing or cover is then mounted to the base structure to enclose the internal support structures and operative components. Pencil sharpeners exemplifying one or more of these characteristics are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,335,148 to Hoffman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,545,779 to Harrison, U.S. Pat. No. 2,822,781 to Burton, U.S. Pat. No. 2,900,958 to Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,134,365 to Hori, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,316 to Verdi.
These and other known pencil sharpeners are composed of numerous parts, resulting in increased costs of manufacturing the various parts and in increased costs of assembling those parts into subassemblies and to complete the pencil sharpener. Additionally, such parts and/or subassemblies are typically oddly shaped, and must be positioned and/or fastened in multiple planes or along multiple axes, further complicating the assembly process. Such assembly requires either manual assembly or complex automated machinery, both of which are expensive.
What is needed is a pencil sharpener that requires fewer, simpler parts, allowing for positioning and/or fastening of parts and/or subassemblies in fewer planes, and/or that may be quickly and easily assembled, e.g., by automated pick-and-place assembly equipment.